Library Accessibility Alliance
The LAA contracts with third-party, independent accessibility consulting companies to perform high-level accessibility evaluations based on WCAG 2.1 AA or WCAG 2.2 AA. These tests are not full, comprehensive audits; instead, they are scoped assessments designed to identify key accessibility barriers within a designated number of hours. The tests are performed using screen reader software such as JAWS or NVDA.
We currently partner with Deque, Accessiblü, and University of Tennessee Knoxville’s User Experience Lab for completing evaluations. In the past, we have also worked with Michigan State University's Usability/Accessibility Research and Consulting (UARC).
Method
The LAA selects e-resources to test based upon recommendations from member libraries and prioritizes platforms commonly owned or under consideration by member consortia. We rotate our testing focus among major platforms, subject-specific or niche e-resources, and retests of previously evaluated e-resources. For retests, we prioritize e-resources that were tested more than two years ago, are recommended by member libraries, and have redesigned or updated interfaces.
The LAA typically selects two to three vendors a month to test and submits scoping documents to our consultant companies. (example scoping document)
The scoping document outlines typical library research tasks a user might perform, such as:
- Viewing and navigating the landing page
- Performing basic and advanced searches
- Viewing search results
- Applying filters and refining results
- Selecting a search result
- Viewing and interacting with individual items (articles, e-books, etc.)
Results
The program provides vendors with a report and the opportunity to improve the accessibility of their products, while giving members of the library community information about the accessibility of specific library e-resources.
All evaluations funded by the LAA are provided to e-resource vendors at no cost. Vendors are invited to submit a response and attend a consultation call with our consultant companies, also at no cost.
All e-resource accessibility evaluations and vendor responses are publicly available on the LAA Testing homepage.
WCAG Scoring
Results of vendor testing are also reported numerically on vendor landing pages. Numerical WCAG conformance is calculated by assessing the number of AA WCAG criteria that the testing report identifies conformance issues with. More information on methodology is available in the 2024 Impact and Analysis Report.